Darktide

by Christine Pope

  In the end, though, this was about taking a leap of faith. We could stand here and talk about it all day, go back and forth on our strategies, but in the end we simply didn’t know. So much of witch lore was never written down, was only passed down from generation to generation. Problem was, if a gift disappeared and wasn’t seen in a clan for decades — or not at all — then all memory of it could be lost. I’d certainly never heard of a null, and neither had Connor. Probably the only reason that Luz had was that her clan had a better track record for writing these things down. The Wilcoxes had Marie, who functioned as their unofficial historian, and the McAllisters had my cousin Melanie — except that all Melanie really did was keep track of our various family connections on a database on her computer. She certainly didn’t have any kind of a history written down. Everything I knew about the McAllisters had come to me from things my Aunt Rachel had said, or that the elders had told me.

  If we managed to survive all this, we really needed to remedy that situation. Too much valuable information was being lost.

  I looked over at Connor. He was rubbing his chin, which meant he was thinking. Good. When I got too close to a problem, I tended to have a hard time picking my way through it. Connor tended to be more analytical. I valued that quality in him, because I thought I sadly lacked it sometimes.

  “If there’s no historical precedent, it means we probably have a good chance,” he said at last. “Not a hundred-percent-guaranteed chance, but I think the odds are good. And, in the end, we have to make a decision. It’s fine to get theoretical, but in the meantime, Levi’s still Joaquin Escobar’s prisoner. We’re running out of time.”

  I’d thought basically the same thing, but it was good to hear Connor say it. “So…what’s our plan?”

  “We’ll go to the room where Levi is being held. Best case, we grab him and go, and leave Joaquin Escobar for later.”

  “We shouldn’t strike while we’re there?” Luz asked. “I thought we were going to attempt to take away his powers.”

  “If the opportunity presents itself,” I said. “There’s a good chance that Escobar will be in an entirely different part of the house, and so not close enough for us to attack him. Remember, when Connor and I took away Matías’ powers and the powers of the Aguirre cousins, we were standing in the same room. It took an enormous amount of energy, and I don’t know whether even the three of us working together would be able to cast that spell at a distance. Chasing after Escobar when we have a clear shot at getting in, rescuing Levi, and getting out doesn’t make much sense, especially if it turns out that Levi isn’t alone and we have to confront one or more Santiagos at the same time.”

  “I suppose not,” she responded, although I could tell she wasn’t happy about the direction this was going.

  I understood her disappointment — I would have been more than happy to make sure Escobar’s powers were stripped from him, and that he was forced to face civilian authorities for the murders of Simón and Beatriz Santiago, not to mention the rape of Marisol Valdez — but we couldn’t allow ourselves to pursue vengeance at the cost of saving Levi. Besides, if we could show Joaquin Escobar that we were able to teleport in and out of his house without batting the proverbial eyelash, then he’d know he really wasn’t safe. With any luck, maybe he’d reevaluate his plans for world domination and crawl back into whatever hole he came out of.

  “He’ll get his,” I said. “Believe me. But first things first.”

  She nodded. “You’re right, of course. I just can’t stop thinking about my cousin Miguel. He deserves some justice.”

  “He’ll get it,” Connor promised. “Just maybe not today. For now, though, we have to concentrate on where we’re going, and what we’re going to do when we get there. Angela and I know our destination, because Lucinda let us look into her mind to see it. If we all take hands, then I think our combined knowledge of the house should be enough to bring you along with us, Luz.”

  “I hope so,” she said, smiling a little, although I could tell that smile was pretty shaky around the edges. Well, I couldn’t give her too much grief for that. I knew exactly how she felt.

  “The journey takes less than a second, even at that distance,” Connor continued. “So we all need to be ready the second we leave this room. Best-case scenario, Levi’s there, Escobar doesn’t have enough time to react, and we get Levi and pop back here. One and done.”

  “That sounds very neat and clean,” Luz remarked. “Unfortunately, my experience tells me that best-case scenarios rarely exist in the real world.”

  She definitely had that right. I said, “Then we go to Plan B. If Escobar is in the room, then we try to take his powers away. Luz, you’ll mostly be providing extra strength for that spell, since you’ve never performed it. If we hit him fast and hit him hard, he won’t have any time to react.”

  “Again, best-case scenario,” Connor said. “Or at least, that’s the best outcome we can hope for if it turns out Escobar is there. If we have to fight him….” He let the words trail off, but from the way his lips pressed together, I could tell he wasn’t too thrilled about having to face that particular possibility.

  Neither was I. Yes, we’d faced down Connor’s brother, who before Joaquin Escobar was the strongest warlock I’d ever encountered, but the situation wasn’t remotely the same. At the very least, I’d never had to worry about Damon Wilcox having the ability to render my own powers useless.

  But that was a remote possibility. There was no record of a null ever neutralizing a prima. Luz had said so. Which meant we had more than a fighting chance.

  “Then there’s the third possibility,” Connor said. “That the room is empty when we get there. If that’s the case, we’ll have to decide whether it’s worth the risk to start searching the house for Levi.”

  “Of course it’s worth the risk,” I retorted. “What would be the point of us all going there if we just turn around and come back here the second our plans don’t pan out the way we thought?”

  “The point would be giving us time to regroup, figure out what we’re going to do next.”

  Luz shook her head. “I agree with Angela. There’s no guarantee that Escobar won’t be able to detect our presence, won’t be able to figure out how we came to be in his house. We’d be giving up the element of surprise if we simply left. It’s better for us to look for him, if it comes to that.”

  A sigh. Connor didn’t look too thrilled at the idea, but since it was two to one, it seemed as if he was willing to give in on that point. “All right,” he said. “But only if the house isn’t overrun with other witches and warlocks. There’s a limit to how much we’re able to do. Just because Angela and I have managed to tap into some new powers doesn’t mean we’re suddenly invincible.”

  “I know,” I said. “Believe me, I’m not eager to get into a brawl with a bunch of Santiagos. And there’s also Marisol to keep in mind — from the way Lucinda talked, it sounded as if she’s pretty out of it, but there’s no guarantee she won’t come to Escobar’s defense. And she is a prima, which means her powers match ours.”

  “She would still be outnumbered three to one if she did try to attack us,” Luz pointed out. “But I understand. We can’t get over-confident.”

  “If Levi’s not in his room and we go to look for him, and there are a bunch of Santiagos hanging around, we’ll be out of there tout suite,” I said. “I’m not crazy. We’ll just have to play it by ear, and be ready to bug out if we have to. Connor, do you want to come back here, or to the Jerome house?”

  “We might as well come here,” he replied. “If we’re successful and have Levi with us, it’ll be simpler to drop Luz here at home and then continue to Jerome after that.”

  “Right.” For a moment, I worried about whether Connor and I would be able to teleport both of them. It would be a strain, but I thought we should be able to manage it, especially with Luz’s powers bolstering our own.” I paused, and looked from Connor to Luz. For a change, she wasn’t wearing
one of her signature sheath dresses, but instead a pair of well-fitting slim jeans, flats, and a sleeveless blouse in the hot pink shade she seemed to favor. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her trying to face down Joaquin Escobar in a pair of kitten heels. “Are we ready?”

  “Define ‘ready,’” Connor said, but he smiled as he spoke, which meant he was just trying to tease me a little.

  “Ready as we’ll ever be,” Luz added. “Let’s do this.”

  I pulled in a breath, then reached out my hands. Connor took my right hand in his left, while I wrapped the fingers of my left hand in Luz’s right. She took Connor’s free hand, and the circle was closed.

  Already I could feel the energy humming between us, as though our prima and primus powers remembered when they had been joined a few minutes earlier, and wanted to do so again. Good. We needed them to cooperate.

  Shutting my eyes, I visualized the room Lucinda had shown us, with the high arched windows and wooden floors, the small glimpse of the bathroom with its cheerful yellow and blue tile. A little shiver went through me as I realized we would soon be standing there. “Do you see it?” I murmured to Connor.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Then let’s go.”

  15

  Angela

  The world shifted beneath my feet. Once again that sensation of warmth enveloped me, only this time it was even stronger, because Luz’s energy had mixed with Connor’s and mine, giving us what felt like a sudden burst of adrenaline.

  Or maybe that was simply my own nervous energy.

  As soon as I sensed solid ground beneath me again, I opened my eyes. We stood in the room Lucinda had described to us, but it was definitely empty. A slight mussing of the quilt told me someone had once lain on the queen-size bed. Otherwise, though, there was no sign that anyone had ever been here.

  Luz stepped forward and laid her hand on the quilt. “I can feel his magic here, although muted. I think Levi was in this room at one point, even if he’s not here now.”

  Yes, Luz had always been good at detecting magic and those who wielded it, if not quite as gifted as her mother. I supposed I should be glad that she was able to pick up even this trace of Levi’s presence. At least we knew we were in the right place.

  “Is he still in the house?” Connor asked, his voice barely above a murmur.

  She paused, one hand stretched out toward the door. “I think so. I can definitely feel three witches or warlocks in the house, and….” Her words trailed off there as she frowned.

  Every muscle in my body seemed to tense. “What is it?”

  “The fourth…I can’t tell. There’s something, but it’s dark, indistinct. Possibly that is Joaquin Escobar, his null powers blocking me from being able to detect anything specific.”

  That made sense. At the same time, I had to let out a relieved little breath, even though I couldn’t really allow myself to relax. The mere fact that we stood here now meant Escobar’s null energy wasn’t able to cancel out our prima powers. Otherwise, we would never have been able to teleport into the house.

  At the same time, though, I was cursing that we hadn’t thought to ask Lucinda about the rest of the place. I knew from Caitlin that the living room was quite formal, and apparently had real Picassos and other priceless works of art hanging there, but that level of detail wasn’t enough to make for a safe destination when it came to teleporting.

  As I looked over at Connor, I could tell he was thinking much the same thing, since his brows were pulled together, and he was staring at the door that opened onto the hall as though a fire-breathing dragon waited on the other side. Then his shoulders lifted, and he said, “We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Still, there’s no reason why we can’t try to confuse them a little.”

  For a second, I wondered what in the world he was talking about. But then his dark hair lightened, went to a mid-brown before transforming all the way to Levi’s flaxen blond. At the same time, his hazel eyes shifted to clear blue, and his features altered subtly, becoming the face of the being who had lived among us for the past year and a half. Very little about his body had to change, because Connor and Levi were almost the same height, and the same kind of rangy, well-muscled build.

  “Well, that is handy,” Luz remarked. “I knew that was your talent, Connor, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to observe it. Very convincing.”

  “And disconcerting,” I added. “Luckily, he doesn’t have to use it very much. But seeing another ‘Levi’ walk in might throw off Escobar — and whoever he has with him — long enough that we can grab the real Levi and get the hell out of there.”

  “Assuming he doesn’t already know we’re here,” Connor said. “But then, if that were the case, you’d think he’d already be beating down the door. We’d better get going before he figures it out.”

  I nodded, and tried to ignore the rapid beating of my heart. It hadn’t been too frightening standing in this room, because no one had attacked us, and we’d made it here safe and sound. But now we’d have to venture out in search of Levi — and probably Joaquin Escobar — and suddenly the danger we’d put ourselves in felt far too real. Still, we were here, and we couldn’t back out now, no matter how much the thought of going downstairs and searching for Levi scared the living hell out of me.

  Connor put his hand on the doorknob and turned it, then opened the door. Outside was a hallway with several doors that opened off it. A long, expensive-looking Persian runner covered the floor, and on the walls between the doors hung equally expensive-looking art.

  No one was around, although I thought I could hear the faint murmur of voices drifting up the stairs. Definitely two men’s voices, and another voice, female and fairly young-sounding.

  Connor gestured for Luz and me to step into the hallway. He pointed toward the staircase, although really, there wasn’t anywhere else we could have headed. At the same time, he made a movement that seemed to trace the shape of a big bubble, and I nodded. We’d been able to generate one of those protective fields back at Luz’s house, and it made sense to do the same thing now.

  Because Connor was already using some of his power to maintain Levi’s image, I reached within myself to tap into my own energy and have it join with Luz’s. I visualized the field of protection we’d cast, its faint shimmer, its unbelievable strength.

  And there it was, surrounding Luz and Connor and me, a shield that should keep us safe from anything Joaquin Escobar could throw at us.

  With that protection in place, we quietly inched down the stairs. One of them creaked, and I winced. However, I didn’t hear any break in the conversation, which seemed to be coming from the living room. Maybe they were talking loudly enough that they wouldn’t be able to detect something as minor as a creaking step.

  As we made our way to the bottom of the staircase, the voices became louder. I recognized Levi’s, and another man’s, cold and clipped, with a definite accent. Not Mexican, though. But then, I knew that Joaquin Escobar came from El Salvador.

  “…you need to see reason, Levi,” Escobar was saying. “Your loyalty to the McAllisters — perhaps some would find it admirable. I merely think it short-sighted. You can accomplish much more, be a far greater force in the world, if you stay here with us, with Miss Ludlow.”

  Miss Ludlow? I shot a puzzled glance at Connor, who only responded by lifting his shoulders. But then, what else could he do? It wasn’t as though we could stop and have a conversation on the bottom step. We had to continue now that we were set upon this course of action, even though every instinct was telling me to grab Connor and Luz by the hand and teleport right out of there.

  “I tried to tell him that,” came a young woman’s voice, petulant, annoyed…and also very young. Not much more than a teenager, from what I could tell. “But he doesn’t want to listen to me. That’s why I thought we should all talk to him.”

  “Those people, they are in your past,” Escobar said. “Forget them. Your place is here with us. You need
to forget them, because if you don’t — ”

  He let the words hang there, but the threat within them was obvious enough. If he went along with whatever it was that Joaquin Escobar — and this Ludlow girl, although I couldn’t quite figure out how she fit into all this — wanted, then maybe the McAllisters would be left alone. If not….

  A shiver went over me. The presence of a Ludlow witch seemed to indicate that the other California witch clan had thrown in its lot with the Santiagos. If that turned out to be the case, then we really would be in a world of hurt. They outnumbered the Arizona witch clans, and probably out-powered us, too.

  Luz leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “We need to go in now, while they’re talking.”

  I swallowed and sent Connor a questioning look. His jaw hardened, and then he nodded. It was strange to see expressions and movements I was used to in my husband echoed in Levi’s features, but of course that was still Connor under there, no matter what he might look like on the surface.

  Another step, and he was standing on the tiled floor of the foyer. It was an impressive-looking space, with its two-story ceiling and gilt-framed paintings and vases of live orchids set on pedestals around the room. However, I didn’t have time for much more than a brief glimpse, because then Connor strode forward, and I had to hurry to keep up with him, making sure that he stayed within the protective bubble I’d cast. Behind me, I heard Luz’s soft footfalls and knew she was taking the same precaution.

  And then we were passing through the arched doorway that led into the living room. I had a sudden quick impression of four people sitting in there — Levi in an armchair, his blue eyes lighting up in surprise as he saw us, a black-haired Hispanic man in his forties who must be Joaquin Escobar, a girl of around twenty or so, with perfectly curled, long light brown hair, and another young woman maybe a few years older, Hispanic, with something hazy and confused about her big dark eyes, a confusion that only seemed to grow as she looked from my disguised husband to Levi and back again.